Everything you have ever wanted to know about queen Anna Shay from Bling Empire
She’s been married four times and has a son who is a ‘cannabis enthusiast’
Ask anyone who their favourite cast member of Netflix show Bling Empire is, and I’d bet a lot of money that most will say Anna Shay. She is the queen of our hearts, with her matter-of-fact humour, incredible jewellery range and enviable lifestyle.
Right from season one we’ve loved her. I still remember her first scene, literally smashing onto the show with a hammer in a designer dress. She is one of a kind. So, now is the time to truly get to know the legend that she is. We’re talking exactly where her huge net worth came from and everything she’s got up to in her wild and turbulent life.
Here is everything you could ever want to know about Bling Empire legend, Anna Shay.
Anna Shay is 61 and from Tokyo
Anna was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1960 and is half Russian, half Japanese. She is currently 61-years-old and lives in Beverly Hills. Her father was called Edward Shay and he passed away in 1995, whilst her mother was called Ai Oizumi Shay, and passed away in 2015. Anna has one younger brother called Allen.
A fun couple of facts: Anna has a love for animals. She reportedly owns nine pet golden retrievers which keep her company in her huge mansion estate. She also used to have a pet monkey as a child. “When we moved to America from Japan, I had a pet monkey,” she said in an interview. “She [the monkey] had a bottom seat in Pan Am but I wanted her to sit next to me. The flight attendants all knew my parents. She looked at me and said, ‘Would your friend like a drink?’ I dressed her up. I didn’t know if she was a boy or a girl. I said, ‘She’s my sister. She’ll have some milk, please. And perhaps if you have a banana.’ They didn’t take the monkey away.”
Anna is an heiress, with a net worth of $600million and the Shay family money is from weapons
I’m sorry, but did you expect anything less extravagant? Anna Shay is the richest of all the Bling Empire cast members, naturally, with a reported net worth of $600million. She’s so rich that after season one, Anna admitted to not cashing her cheques from Netflix, because she “didn’t know what to do” with the money.
She is an heiress – Anna’s father, Edward Shay, is the late billionaire founder of Pacific Architects and Engineers, a defence contracting firm. On the show it says she is “super super wealthy” and that her money comes from weapons. “Her father sold bombs, guns, defence technology and is a worth a few billion”, Kane said in season one. In 2006, Anna and her brother sold their father’s business for $1.2 billion. Not a bad day.
She’s never worked in her life
Anna has openly admitted to never working a day in her life, which is very on brand. Given how rich her family is, it’s not all that much of a surprise. Apparently Anna had wanted to join the family business but her father wasn’t keen, so passed all the responsibility on Anna’s brother instead.
Anna has done charity work though, including working on the Shay Foundation, which was set up by her late parents.
Anna Shay has been married and divorced many times, and has a son who doesn’t appear much on Bling Empire
Anna has been married, and divorced, four times – but nothing is known about who the men are. She has a 28-year-old son, Kenny Kemp, who has been described as a “cannabis enthusiast” and “a passionate stoner”. According to Buzzfeed News, he has a vast collection of five-figure glass pipes used for smoking weed. “Kemp has an extensive, legally paid for collection of pipes, pendants, marbles, and tubes featuring psychedelic swirls, fantastical creatures, skulls, and nostalgic references to Nintendo characters,” the article reads. It says he hangs out in Anna’s basement to smoke.
According to further reports, Kenny keeps his weed stashed in Anna’s mansion, in a vault that was originally designed to be a wine cellar. Kenny briefly appeared on Bling Empire in season one alongside his girlfriend, but he doesn’t appear regularly.
Anna is friends with the producer of Bling Empire
Anna Shay was approached by her friend, Jeff Jenkins, who is the producer of the show, about being part of the Bling Empire cast. In an interview with Oprah Mag, she admitted that at first she thought he wanted her help for behind the scenes. “The next thing I knew, I was sitting in front of the camera,” she said. “I’m really quite shy, so it was hard. I never thought about doing this, especially at my age.”
Season two of Bling Empire is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.
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